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My Live Orange

I didn’t just write this new book,

I lived it.

An excerpt that tells a piece of my story…

I was in an orange ball gown; crouching inside a giant orange. Counting the measures of music as the glue from my wig was melting in the heat and rolling dangerously close to my eyes. Finally, at measure 48, I pulled the chord which opened the giant orange and while fighting to find the balance to stand, I turned toward the prince and my voice poured out my opening line “I am the Princess Linetta” into the blackness of the sold out opera house, and the orchestra roared.

Nothing in life prepares you for a moment like that…nothing. The reverse is also true, everything in life had prepared me for that moment. It should have been one of the most terrifying moments of my life but as I crouched inside that giant orange, tapping and counting, there was a moment of clarity and I was perfectly calm and in that moment, I thought of Christian. I realized that this was not what I was meant to be doing with my life.

I thought of Christian and how I promised myself that when I grew up, I would find a way to help children like him and children like me. I would be made first alternate with the Cincinnati Opera Company that year with an excellent chance of making the company the following year but my father became ill and I was needed at home, so my life took a turn towards education. I always wanted to die on stage in the arms of a prince. That night, I did and that was enough for me.